Thursday, March 10, 2011

Governor Goodhair, Moron: Says That Texas Teacher Layoffs Are A Local Problem

By Manifesto Joe

Rick "Governor Goodhair" Perry ran for re-election last year on a platform of no new taxes, and many Texans were gullible enough to buy it, casting 55% of the votes for him. Now we're looking at mass teacher layoffs across the state, and Goodhair has the nerve to say at a press conference that it's "a local decision."

This comes as Texas legislators are considering nearly $10 billion in budget cuts to education. The overall proposal would eliminate up to $31.1 billion in state services over the next two years.

According to a report in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Carroll school district Trustee Sue Armstrong described Perry's comments as "comical." She went on:

noting that Carroll has already cut $2 million from its budget, mostly from the central office and via teacher attrition. "The next cuts we're looking at are to our gifted and talented program," Armstrong said.

Goodhair does a lot of talking about jobs. Of course, he's talking out of his ass. For one thing, a new UCLA study shows that Texas extracts more tax money out of its businesses than blue-state California does. Here's the link.

Bear in mind, though, that these taxes are being extracted from middle-class businesses, mostly. Now, he's got the state eating its seed corn so that his very rich friends can be spared any more nasty new taxes -- as though they were paying a lot already. With fewer teachers, less money spent on education, etc., where is this skilled work force going to come from?

Right-wingers would have you believe that merely throwing money at education doesn't improve it. I can tell you firsthand that when it comes to quality of education, money matters. I have a vivid memory of high school biology. We didn't have enough microscopes to serve all the students in the class -- we had to share, and it usually wasn't equal sharing. And the microscopes we had were from about 1948, so even the students who got first dibs at them weren't getting much. My high school graduating class was small -- about 100 -- but I can't remember one, not even one, member of the Class of '74 who ever did well in hard sciences. I didn't even try, because I knew I lacked the background. That's why I ended up a journalist (fool!).

Now Goodhair is going to preside over draconian cuts in education. Of course, his kids and grandkids won't be affected, but millions of young Texans will be. This is what comes of electing to the governorship a right-wing Republican who pulled a 2.3 GPA majoring in animal husbandry at Texas A&M. This stuff gives Aggies a bad name.

Well, Texans, I hate to keep saying that I told you so, but I did tell you so. But, of course, this sort of thing is happening all over the country. At least in Wisconsin they have the balls to raise some hell about it. I understand that some Texas teachers are going to Austin this weekend to protest. Good luck -- the Legislature is controlled 2-to-1 by Republicans in a state in which that party is one of the most kook-right of them all. The damage will already be done before you know it.

Just remember that the next time you sit home and don't vote during a midterm election. Even a DINO is usually better than a kook-right, Tea Party Republican. Y'all are fixin' to find that out, the hard way.

6 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Texas currently has an astonishing $27 billion deficit. That dwarfs the deficits of many of the supposedly "spendthrift" Big Government Blue States.It's amazing that Texas has a deficit at all, much less a $27 billion one. After all, Texas has a minimalist government. We don't spend shit on much of anything. Everything from schools to social programs are starved for funds.Yes, we do have a gigantic prison system that locks up thousands of people for minor drug offenses. But it remains a mystery to me as to how on earth Texas could be so far in the red.Under Ann Richards, we never had deficits that were remotely as large.Bizarrely, most of Perry's deluded followers continue to maintain that he is a "fiscally responsible" Conservative. In reality, he's a fucking moron who almost makes W look good.

Joe, It is hard for me to fathom a place as backward-looking as Texas, or one so rife with ignorance and utter foolishness. God help you down there, my friend. The Texas educational system will soon make the current Mississippi one look good! No wonder those Texas Republicans hat "guvment" so much---it's been so long since they've had good governance, they wouldn't know if it came and bit them in the ass!

Joe, I sometimes dream Bernie Sanders is my US Senator. Then, there is a knock at the door and it's Mitch and Rand raising funds for the wealthy. Our governor is suing the EPA to prevent them from enforcing the law protecting surface water from mountain top removal. Your governor gives me a small measure of solace in that misery loves company.

I knew about Buckley's civil veneer and agree with you. Daniel's post.

Joe, Nice to find you. I am an indenpendent liberal in San Antonio. A refugee from the wilds of northern Michigan my wife and I threw a dart at a map of the southern/western states back in 2003 to decide where we were going to retire to. The dart landed on San Antonio. We knew nothing about it other than there would be NO SNOW. Built a nice house in 2004 and due to Texas constitutional amendment, I pay zero property taxes. Now our kids are slowly moving to the area-because MI job market sucks and due to power grab by new rethug gov there. Keep it up, I am adding you to my favorite file and will be dropping by often

I grew up south of San Antonio, and there is indeed almost no snow there. I saw snow about 3 times by the time I was 25 and moved farther north in the state. Here, we actually got 12.6 inches in a 24-hr. period in Feb. 2010, and people didn't know what to do. The infrastructure isn't built for it, and most of the people don't know how to drive on it.

The big problem here is for people like me, with respiratory allergies. This is no place for such folks to be. But places in the high desert, like Elko, Nevada, would be even more culturally barren than here. I don't know if I could stand that, as tough as it's been to be an almost lifelong Texan.

Separated at birth ...

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"I consider myself a reasonably tough person. But if you waterboarded me enough times, I would probably sign my house and car over to you and confess to the murders of Jonbenet Ramsey and the Lindbergh baby." -- MJ

About Me

As all my posts state, I am an underground writer living in Texas. I am doing political blogging under a nom de plume for various reasons. I was born in 1956 in a small Texas town; I now live in a medium-large city. I have been writing my entire adult life, and have been published, both mainstream and underground. In my teens I was actually a libertarian-type conservative. Meeting Young Republican types in college was crucial to my being cured of that once and for all. At one point in my 20s I was something of a Trotskyite, but eventually became a more moderate progressive.
Since I started this blog and affiliated with other blogs, my writing has appeared in the USA Today, CNN and Reuters online editions, in Buzzflash.com, Crooks and Liars, and a number of other popular sites. My invaluable mentors have been Marc McDonald at BeggarsCanBeChoosers.com, and Blue Girl of They Gave Us a Republic and other fine blogs.
In keeping with anonymity, this is all I should say.

See "Manifesto Joe's Great Moments in Conservative History, Chapter 1"

Favorite progressive movies

Mister Roberts -- see January 2009 post.

The Big Parade, The Crowd, Our Daily Bread, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Seven Days in May, Dr. Strangelove, The Grapes of Wrath, Silkwood, Salt of the Earth, Born on the Fourth of July, A Face in the Crowd, The Manchurian Candidate, Easy Rider, Chinatown, Reds, The Naked and the Dead.

Fear on Trial.

Open City, Seven Beauties, Swept Away, The Bicycle Thief, Grand Illusion, Fury, Inherit the Wind, Judgment at Nuremburg, Pressure Point, The President's Analyst, From Here to Eternity, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Milagro Beanfield War, Native Son, Bob Roberts, There Will Be Blood.

Modern Times, The Great Dictator, Paths of Glory, Spartacus, Hombre, Cool Hand Luke, Pan's Labyrinth, Network, Cutter's Way, All Quiet on the Western Front, Twelve Angry Men, Matewan, Return of the Seacaucus Seven, American History X, Putney Swope, The Pawnbroker, In the Heat of the Night, Norma Rae, North Country.